The Rocks

It's not every day that a new American Viticulture Area or AVA is created but as of yesterday, The Rocks AVA was officially designated. Michelle Kaufmann, communications manager for the Oregon Wine Board says Oregon is excited about this new wine area.

KAUFMANN: It's one of at least four distinct areas in the greater Walla Walla Valley that shows promise as far as terroir and having something unique about it. It is solely within Oregon but but also inside the Walla Walla Valley as a whole and then Walla Walla Valley sits within the Columbia Valley as well.

So it's an Oregon AVA but since it's part of the Walla Walla Valley it comes under the purview of Duane Wollmuth, executive director for the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance.

WOLLMUTH:Probably one of the first in the country that the designation is based on the terroir or really the combination of growing factors, primarily the soils. The cobblestone rocks of course is the distinguishing factor. A lot of outstanding wines, highly reviewed and highly rated wines have come out of that AVA here in past years so it will continue to draw attention to the Walla Walla Valley.

Kaufmann says this can really help drill down where certain wines come from.

KAUFMANN: It's just, yet another tool we have to talk about the specific place in which these wines are coming from so it's not just the Walla Walla Valley which is quite a large area. In this case for the wineries that choose to use this on their labels we're talking about a very small area in Milton-Freewater.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.